January 16, 2009

So...Lena's Playing Well.

I've had to revamp my AO predictions now that Lena has kicked off the season with two back to back titles. She beat Dina 63 26 61.

"This is great, to have all this pressure after winning
two titles. Coming to [Melbourne] with the
pressure, I love it, I really do."

I kind of don't believe her but so it goes. She's in form, folks. Hitting the ball hard and flat, painting lines, hitting deep, and running down everything. She'll definitely give Venus a run for her money in Melbourne, assuming she gets that far. If it were any other player I'd say that she'd burn out at some point during the Aussie fortnight. But methinks Lena's old lady arms won't quit. Intriguing.

As for Dina, well, we'll see. She definitely doesn't have that dominant air that she had during that ridiculous Berlin-Tokyo stretch. And with preseason losses to Domi and Lena, she seems beatable. Not as beatable as say, Ana, but beatable. Her serve is still a bit wonky and her decisionmaking is at times, questionable. She and Zeljko have clearly been working to make her more of an aggressive first-strike player, but if that's not the game you've played your whole life it'll take some time to get used to it. I get the sense that she's looking so hard for that first strike that when she gets it she rushes a bit, trying to hit the cover off the ball. It'll take her a while to develop the patience.

Comments

I've had to revamp my AO predictions now that Lena has kicked off the season with two back to back titles. She beat Dina 63 26 61.

"This is great, to have all this pressure after winning
two titles. Coming to [Melbourne] with the
pressure, I love it, I really do."

I kind of don't believe her but so it goes. She's in form, folks. Hitting the ball hard and flat, painting lines, hitting deep, and running down everything. She'll definitely give Venus a run for her money in Melbourne, assuming she gets that far. If it were any other player I'd say that she'd burn out at some point during the Aussie fortnight. But methinks Lena's old lady arms won't quit. Intriguing.

As for Dina, well, we'll see. She definitely doesn't have that dominant air that she had during that ridiculous Berlin-Tokyo stretch. And with preseason losses to Domi and Lena, she seems beatable. Not as beatable as say, Ana, but beatable. Her serve is still a bit wonky and her decisionmaking is at times, questionable. She and Zeljko have clearly been working to make her more of an aggressive first-strike player, but if that's not the game you've played your whole life it'll take some time to get used to it. I get the sense that she's looking so hard for that first strike that when she gets it she rushes a bit, trying to hit the cover off the ball. It'll take her a while to develop the patience.